Disciplined bowlers are crucial to County win

DELIGHTED Steve Rhodes praised his bowlers after the Worcestershire attack ran through Kent to seal a confidence-boosting victory.

The 125-run LV= County Championship Division Two success was built upon disciplined bowling and a career-best 89 from Ben Cox at a crucial stage of the game.

The New Road director of cricket said: “It was a really professional performance.

“If you look at the bowlers in particular, their discipline was incredible. We bowled 120-odd overs with no no-balls or wides. They bowled straight, attacked the stumps and we got the reward.

“They only went at around two-runs-per-over so we did all the right things and then things go for you. There was an amazing catch from Shaaiq Choudhry too to get rid of Darren Stevens.

“The win came without an overseas player and no Alan Richardson so I’m optimistic the lads can build confidence knowing they can play good cricket and keep this going.

“I’m sure we’ll have some hiccups along the way but we’ll deal with those.

“Moving forward and with the addition of Saeed Ajmal, you would say we should go well against Derbyshire in our next match.

“However, as we found in Abu Dhabi in pre-season, they are a lot better than three or four years ago so will be a tough nut to crack.”

On the form of wicketkeeper Cox, former England gloveman Rhodes said: “I was delighted for us as a team and for Ben, who really got us out of a hole at 116-5 on day three.

“In the past, we might have collapsed to 150 to 160 all out so his knock was crucial.

“His wicketkeeping in supporting the spinners and standing up to the stumps to the seamers was excellent.

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“Ben’s been threatening to do that sort of thing for a while and he’s a more-than-capable batsman – maybe this is the start of him maturing as a batsman, while his keeping has got better.

“This is a team with a lad who has played one-day international cricket against a Kent side full of seasoned campaigners, including four who played Test cricket and two Lions players, so it was a very good effort from us.”

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